The water jet loom overcomes many of the difficulties of the mechanical shuttle used to carry a weft back and forth in a loom. The water jet devices are easily controlled, have few moving parts and therefore fewer mechanical breakdowns, and can be made to operated significantly faster than mechanical weft control devices. However, when there is a mechanical breakdown, significant production is lost because of the high production rates of the water jet looms. One of the problems causing mechanical breakdown is corrosion caused by the presence of water in the atmosphere surrounding the loom. One of the major causes of downtime in at least one model of the Nissan water jet loom is caused by corrosion in a ball and socket mounted in a foot used to move rods.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,447,181 Tahara et al (1995) at col. 1, lines 62 to 68 discloses "Namely, the surface of a guide bar blade in this invention is nitrided for hardening. For this reason the blade surface becomes harder than that heretofore in use, which results in the wear resistance for high-speed operation of an automatic loom and also prevents the surface from rusting.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,607,965 Belanger (1986) discloses and improved bearing for supporting a bifold door. The bearing is described at col. 5, lines 36 to 47 as follows:
"The bearing members 18, may be constructed from various plastic materials including high or ultra high molecular weight polymers sold under the trademark GAR-DUR by Garland Manufacturing Company--, nylon and high density polyethylene resins having selected characteristics such as being abrasion resistant, stable in shape, high in lubricity or self lubricating, tensile strength, rigid, high fatigue life and creep resistant and unaffected by industrial chemicals and solvents--. Such plastics include Delrin.RTM., Oilon.RTM. and Lauramid.TM. brand cast nylon made in West Germany."
U.S. Pat. No. 5,174,633 Kidd et al (1992) at col. 2, lines 49 through 53 discloses:
"The annular bearings 13 and 14 are preferably made of a moldable synthetic resin material in the nature of a conventional hard plastic or a similar material, for example and acetal resin material commercially available from DuPont under the trademark DELRIN."